Entertainment

A Very Royal Scandal True Story: The Infamous Interview that Shook the British Monarchy

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Oct 02, 2024 / 6384 Views

Evan Walker

Amazon Prime Video’s A Very Royal Scandal is a British three-part miniseries based on former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis’ book 2019 Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News. It is said to be a spiritual successor to A Very English Scandal (2018) and A Very British Scandal (2021), both of which were based on Scandalous true stories in recent British History — Thorpe affair in the 2018 series and the tumultuous marriage of Margaret Whigham Sweeny and Ian Campbell in the 2021 series. Want to know all about A Very Royal Scandal real story, cast, release date on Amazon Prime Video and more? Read on.

All about the royal fallout: The real story behind A Very Royal Scandal

The British royal family is a powerful institution with extensive influence and a remarkable collection of historic estates and residences. It has been a subject of several shows and movies, and most of them have been quite flattering portrayals. Not so this show; A Very Royal Scandal and the real story behind it covers one of the darkest chapters of the British royals‘ more than a millennia-long history. It is based on the infamous interview Prince Andrew, Duke of York, gave to the BBC‘s Newsnight in November 2019. It was Emily herself who conducted the interview.

In the interview, Prince Andrew tried to explain his connections with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It was a classic PR move to whitewash his image. However, the interview had the opposite effect and inflicted further damage to his and royal family’s reputation.

The series deals with the scandal, its fallout, legal tangles, and its effects on Prince Andrew. While Michael Sheen, known for Prime Video’s own Good Omens (2019–) essays Prince Andrew, Ruth Wilson, known for BBC‘s crime drama series Luther (2010–2019) plays the role of Emily Maitlis.

The Jeffrey Epstein connection

Controversy over Prince Andrew began with his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender. Despite Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting an underage girl to solicit prostitution, he remained chummy with big fish around the globe, including Prince Andrew. According to a 2011 report in the BBC, there were calls for him to step down due to the friendship.

The Duke of York’s links to Epstein, who has been the subject of a lot of true crime documentaries, had been under intense public scrutiny in the wake of Epstein’s July 2019 arrest on charges of sex trafficking and in the days after Epstein’s death from apparent suicide in his cell in a New York jail.

Epstein’s victims claimed that he used his social circles to set up a trafficking network. One of the victims, Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts), publicly claimed that Epstein trafficked her and stated that at 17 years of age, she was coerced into sexual relations with Prince Andrew. All of these claims the Duke has denied. Nonetheless, his friendship with Epstein even after Epstein’s conviction continued to raise suspicion.

The Newsnight interview: The road to a royal disaster

To get his act together, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, set up an interview with BBC‘s Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis on 16 November 2019. This was one of the chances he got to clear the air about his relationship with Epstein, but this proved to be a PR nightmare and crumpled his image even further.

In the interview, Prince Andrew brought forth various explanations that were widely ridiculed and condemned: he denied flat out ever knowing Virginia Giuffre, while there were pictures of the two of them attending a party in London.

To challenge Giuffre’s assertion that they danced together and he was sweating profusely at a London nightclub called Tramp, Andrew claimed he had an adrenaline overdose at the time due to an incident that he suffered during the Falklands War according to The Atlantic — and this cause him unable to sweat. This assertion was deemed at best bizarre and at worst a flat-out lie by medical experts.

The Prince also claimed that on the evening Giuffre said she spent with him in London, he was actually at home after attending a party at a Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey with his daughter, Beatrice.

His manner in the interview was considered aloof, and he did not utter a single word for Epstein’s victims at large, which drew massive criticism from the public on social media and elsewhere. Instead of getting his name cleared, which was the aim, the interview irreparably tarnished his reputation and forced him to relinquish his royal duties forever.

Aftermath of the Newsnight interview

After the interview for Newsnight, which you can watch above, Prince Andrew’s position within the British Royal Family and in public life collapsed. Just a few days later, on 20 November 2019, Prince Andrew said that he was withdrawing from his public duties. He was also relieved of his patron status with hundreds of charities and organisations.

The fact that Queen Elizabeth II was willing to assent to her son resigning also revealed how serious the scandal was, which had also begun to tarnish the public image of the royal family. Several organisations and sponsors distanced themselves from the Duke, and a media storm engulfed the palace with calls for his titles to be stripped.

The legal battle with Virginia Giuffre

Though the Newsnight interview was disastrous for Prince Andrew, there was more legal trouble that soon followed. In 2021, Virginia Giuffre spoke up and filed a lawsuit against the Duke of York in the United States, stating that she had been sexually abused when she was a minor. Lawyers for Prince Andrew attempted to get the case dismissed and failed, and after several months of this strain, in February 2022, Prince Andrew settled out of court with Giuffre for an undisclosed sum and promised a “substantial” donation to Giuffre’s charity in support of abuse victims.

The interview and the resulting Scandal continue to generate debate and discussion in public and the media.

Why the story still captivates

The Scandal surrounding Prince Andrew, his connections to Epstein, and his interview on the Newsnight cover the tale of one of the biggest crises ever witnessed on the throne of the British monarchy in at least decades. It is a story about privileges, power, and an incredible fall-of-grace for the royal personality who, during his efforts to exculpate himself in the public eye, only made matters worse.

A Very Royal Scandal, while telling a real story, will certainly dramatise these events, particularly everything that occurred behind the scenes. The strong cast and creative team promise quite a compelling account of a scandal that continues to haunt the British monarchy.

While we are at it, do watch both A Very English Scandal (2018) and A Very British Scandal (2021). The former, in particular, features one of the finest performances of Hugh Grant, who is otherwise known for starring in romantic movies — which is saying a lot.

What is A Very Royal Scandal’s release date on Amazon Prime Video?

A Very Royal Scandal arrives on all three episodes on 19 September on Amazon Prime Video.

A Very Royal Scandal cast

Apart from Sheen and Wilson, the show also features Ian Hughes, Éanna Hardwicke, Joanna Scanlan, Claire Rushbrook, Nicholas Burns, and Sam Troughton, among others in the cast.